


Edo Dust

by Kuroeia (Empatheia)



Category: Sarai-ya Goyou | House of Five Leaves
Genre: Ficlet, M/M, Post-Series, Short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-17 14:16:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29967642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Empatheia/pseuds/Kuroeia
Summary: Masa might be ready to go home.
Relationships: Akitsu Masanosuke/Yaichi | Seinoshin
Kudos: 1





	Edo Dust

**Author's Note:**

> Just cleaning out my old WIP/slush folder, don't mind me.

As he lay weak and feverish and city-sick beneath the Elder's roof, feeling the weight of space and isolation all around him, the crossroads and the plains and the sky, he dreamed every night of white hair sliding through his fingers.

Never of home, never of solace.

White hair. The burn of sake and candlelight. Stones in his chest where his lungs should be.

He forgot them on waking, most of the time. The restlessness in his blood never translated to strength or health. It was a nameless, nervous yearning he couldn't pin down, but it made him get up in the morning, at least, and walk around the yard in a vain attempt to escape the hunger that followed at his heels.

The Elder seemed pleased with him when he walked, but he knew it wasn't progress. His heart was still pushing Edo dust through his veins, he saw it behind his lids when he closed them. He couldn't let it go. He missed the smell of it with every breath. His feet ached for the floor of Ume's shop. It had poisoned him, but he was addicted.

Even so, he knew it wasn't the whole city he was searching for in his midnight dreams. It filled his waking thoughts, but the nights felt different. Smaller. Closer. Sharper.

It wasn't until he was walking the road back to Edo at Yaichi's side that he realized what he was following and why.

He stopped, as if the road had seized his feet.

Yaichi noticed after a pace or two and turned to face him. "Is it too early, after all?" he asked. He was smiling. He was always smiling, it seemed, even when he didn't mean it. Especially when he didn't mean it, perhaps.

"No, I'm fine," Masanosuke said around the realization clogging his throat. "There's a stone in my sandal, that's all." He made a show of bending down to shake it out, knowing it was useless. He could hardly lie to save his skin, and never to Yaichi.

Yaichi, who loved secrets, did not press him, but Masanosuke blushed now and then as they walked, whenever the sun filtered through the leaves onto Yaichi's hair and dappled it like old silver.

**X**


End file.
